Kinda Funny

People in relationships have different roles. In our marriage, I am the ballast. Lovely, you might think. A steadying, grounding role. An important, indeed, vital role. It is actually much more prosaic.When we go fishing, Gary wants me along. He has a small 14' aluminum fishing boat. When he goes alone, the front end of the boat sticks up into the air and can slough into the wrong direction. With me in the front, the load is distributed and added to so that steering is true. Yes, I AM the ballast.This is me at Pierce Lake, checking for rocks (I can multi-task, ballast and lookout) since the water was lower and the neck between Howe Bay where we were camped and the main body of the lake had rocks we might hit. It turned out to be a non-danger for our little "craft." Almost as important as being the ballast, I am responsible for netting anything Gary catches. A big responsibility that I take seriously. If I were to miss a large fish, chances are, ballast or not, I could be thrown overboard. Unfortunately, the lake trout were too deep for our rudimentary equipment and you could count the catch on one hand. Weather, etc. was great.It's good to be needed. Next year (maybe even later this year) will find me fulfilling the dual roles of ballast and netter again. Ahhhhh,,,,,summmer.